Search zone for MH370 narrowed to 40 km by 50 km: Australian PM

PERTH, Australia, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Saturday that the search zone for the missing Malaysian flight MH370 had been narrowed to a grid of 40 km by 50 km.

According to a local journalist here who is familiar with the Abbott team, the leader updated a Chinese media the size of the refined search area after his press conference in Beijing.

Local media The Telegraph also confirmed the report.

Abbott, who just wrapped up his visit to China, told reporters in the past two days that he was highly "confident" the signals detected by Australian navy vessel Ocean Shield was related to the missing plane.

"While we have a high degree of confidence that the transmissions that we have been picking up are from flight MH370's black box recorder, no one should underestimate the difficulties of the task ahead of us," he told a press conference Saturday.

The Ocean Shield has already received four electronic transmissions possibly related to MH370 during the week, but no more pulse was detected since then.

MH370 disappeared on March 8 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, with 239 on board.

PERTH, Australia, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Up to 10 aircraft and 14 ships will assist in Saturday's search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, according to the Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC).

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Friday that he was confident the signals heard over the past days were from the black box of the missing Malaysian flight. Full story

SYDNEY, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Friday that he was confident signals detected in the Indian Ocean in the past week were from the black box of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

"We have very much narrowed down the search area and we are very confident that the signals that we are detecting are from the black box," Abbott told reporters in Shanghai, China. Full story

KUALA LUMPUR, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Over 200 statements had been recorded by the police over the investigation of the missing plane incident, Malaysian Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said here Friday.

He said relatives of the passengers and crew of the lost flight MH370 were among those who gave the statements, and that more people would be questioned by the police in their investigation. Full story